Crafting with Kids

With all the sewing I've been doing, Little Man's interest has been piqued. He constantly asks me if he can help sew something. The first couple times I hesitated, told him no and moved on...but I kept thinking that it's always a good idea to cultivate interest when it's shown. The next time he asked, I just pulled out a scrap of fabric and let him sew lines up and down it. During this practice run, I learned how much he enjoys using the reverse button on the machine.

Finally, in preparation for our trip back in September, I came up with the perfect project that he could help with -- we'd gotten several sets of Color Wonder paper and markers, so we needed a marker case to keep them in. I pulled out available fabrics and allowed him to choose his outer and inner, then cut prepped them to be sewn. Once they were ready, Little Man climbed up into my lap and helped sew the case together.

He did a very good job listening when I told him to push the button and when to let go so that we could form the pockets for his markers. As the usual attention span of a 2 year old goes, he was done helping about halfway through the case, so he left and I finished it up so that it was ready for the trip.



The idea for the marker case came from the crayon rolls that I made for the craft bazaar, which will be featured later, in my items for sale series.

Ahhh!

Time flies when you're having fun, and how true is that! I've been working my fingers off (almost literally, more to come on that in a bit) preparing for a craft bazaar that is coming up this weekend! A couple of weeks ago, I tried to hop on and post a blog, but my computer wasn't cooperating so it went by the wayside as I continued sewing, crocheting, sewing some more, and once in a while even taking a break to take care of my family!
All told, I have made several things for the bazaar, and plan to feature a blog post about each type, likely after the weekend is over. I've made: receiving blankets, ribbon texture lovies, bibs, crayon rolls, crocheted Christmas ornaments, market bags and hackey sacks.
As this is the final countdown, I've been working to get as much finished as I could. My goal was to finish all of my sewing last night so I could concentrate on crocheting the rest of the week. However, on my second to last ribbon lovie, I was trying to help the fabric through and caught my finger under the needle of my machine. It's ok, but still painful, and definitely put a stop to all sewing last night! Still, I shall persevere and have already finished the offending blanket and am moving on to my final 4 bibs and my sewing will be complete!

I hope to return soon to post a better update and some pictures of everything I've been working on! And then there will be a flood after Christmas, when I can finally post about all of my top-secret giftie crafting!

Serging marathon

After owning my serger for over a month, I finally figured out how to thread it, and got started on some projects to use it! As I posted about in my diapering post, Little Man's bottom really seems to favor all-cotton diapers, which we don't have too many of. So I pulled out a pile of t-shirts that I cut the designs out of for a tshirt quilt, and used the remainders to cut fitted diapers (so I can play with my snap pliers!). I also cut a couple of prefolds out of the tshirts and some scrap flannel I have on hand.

This picture is everything cut and ready to go -- 2 prefolds and 3 fitted diapers with snap-in soakers. I did the prefolds first to just get used to the serger before doing anything with curves, which were a little bit of a challenge, but I found some good hints and they turned out ok. My serging needs more practice, but it's ok because we need more diapers!  Little Man loves his new diapers, and they are definitely our new favorites. We recently bought Wall-E and have been watching it, so he's super excited about his Wall-E diaper! The sharks are a big hit, too.

Here's a picture of them post-serging:



Recent crafting adventures

I've been pretty busy crafting lately, and have several things I plan to post about. I've just been so busy making things that I haven't taken the time to write about them!!
I've finished my knitted bowl, but still have to felt it. I find that I can never do things the "easy" way...like learning to knit on a straight project on straight needles...no, I have to start knitting in the round on Double Pointed Needles! It took a little bit to get the hang of it, but once I got into my project it went smoothly.

Now, I'm working on a pair of baby legwarmers on really little DPNs! I'm surprised at how quickly I'm picking it up and getting pretty efficient.

I've also been hard at work on building up a stock for a craft fair this November. A friend and I are going to have a booth together, and I've been trying to get a lot of things made to try to sell. These projects will go up in a series of posts about my products for sale.

I finally got my serger threaded and was able to use it! This is another post I have planned...but I made some more new diapers for Little Man and they turned out really cute! The serging is obviously done by a novice, but I'm very happy with how they turned out for my first projects.

Finally, I've been working on Christmas gifts. I've alluded to it before, but I'm planning on making a lot of the gifts for our family and friends, so while I've been super busy making things...I can't necessarily blog about any of them until after Christmas! Planning these has been fun and I'm pretty excited about some of the gifts I've made!

Along with the Christmas gifts, I have plenty of other projects planned. I need some ponchos/capelets/sweaters with fall coming up, as my wardrobe is pretty basic and they're the perfect way to dress it up and keep me warm at the same time. I plan to make this poncho in the yarn I posted about last time -- Universal Yarn Uptown DK. I bought a dark silver and can't wait to get started! I'm also planning on furthering my knitting skill with this poncho, though I haven't decided for sure about the yarn I'll use. I need to hunt something down in my stash that will be perfect! I have fabric laid out and ironed to make myself a new purse, as my current one is falling apart...so that will likely be my next project!

Scarves

Earlier this year, my sister-in-law emailed me and asked if I would be willing to make a couple of scarves for her. I was completely flattered by the request, and excited to do it for her! I had been wanting to try  a couple of scarf patterns, but as I'm not much of a scarf-wearer, there was little point in making them for me, so it became a perfect blend of circumstances.

I had on hand some amazingly soft and beautiful red EllaRae Extrafine Heathers yarn that was just begging to be something, and I found a perfect pattern for it. I absolutely LOVED working with both the yarn and the pattern. I did have to hunt down some more of the yarn, as the scarf took 4 balls, and I only had 2 to begin with, but that was the only hang-up with this scarf.

the whole scarf                                                              the stitch pattern in detail

I LOVE how the stitch pattern lends to the scalloped edge...and if I wore scarves, I would make one of these in every color!

For her second scarf, I have been wanting to learn Tunisian Crochet and, again, waiting for the perfect project to come along to learn/ practice it. Prior to starting the scarf, I did make a small dishcloth to practice the different Tunisian stitches, but generally speaking this was my first tunisian project. This was also done with a new-to-me yarn. It's Universal Yarn brand's Uptown DK that I found at my local yarn shop. It's acrylic, but goes against every "eww, acrylic" stereotype there is. It's so soft and was absolutely lovely to work with and it has a shine that I'm afraid my photos just didn't capture. I will DEFINITELY be buying more of this in the future!

full scarf                                                                        stitch pattern detail

Tunisian crochet came pretty easily to me. I did have to restart the scarf once because I was adding an extra stitch when turning, so I had one edge longer than the other. And I made the scarf quite a bit shorter than I wanted to, simply because I ran out of time to keep adding on and still be able to send them to my sister-in-law for her birthday.

I'm still lamenting the fact that I don't wear scarves much...because I would love to make more of both of these!



New tricks!

When Little Man was born, I quickly discovered the need for a baby carrier. I tried a few, found out I didn't like them, and finally found the amazing resource that is http://www.thebabywearer.com/, and that opened a whole new world for me. They have an entire forum devoted to DIY carriers -- wraps, slings, and everything else! I browsed the forum and committed everything I could to memory, so I could shop for fabric and make myself a carrier. In fact, this is also the point where I decided I needed a new, better sewing machine and got the one I'm currently using. I made a couple wraps, and realized how tedious it is to fold and iron a hem for a 3 yd piece of faric -- and that was just for a short wrap! If I wanted anything longer, I would need something easier. So I invested in a set of rolled hem feet for my machine, tried to use them once, failed miserably, and let them and my fabric that I bought for a wrap sit for well over a year.

A few weeks ago I found a tutorial for using a rolled hem foot, and decided I'd try again (plus I really needed to get some fabric off my shelves!) and this time, it went lots better. I still had some difficulties with not feeding enough fabric in, so my hem got awfully skinny, but I have a hemmed, functional wrap.

the fabric going through the foot...finally the right way!

My finished hem! (one of the better spots ;) )

Diapering

Ever since Little Miss was born, I've been vaguely intrigued by the idea of cloth diapers. I looked into it, but the only research I did took me to the expensive all-in-one type diapers and I was scared of the startup cost (which still would have been less than all I've spent on disposables for my kids, but I digress...). After Little Man was born, I started researching more thoroughly, and found several sites devoted to frugal cloth diapering and how to make your own...so that's what I did. My first ones were rough and I'm still figuring out exactly what works for us, but they are SO fun to sew! I am now to the point, though, that I am able to use them consistently, and discovered the need for some accessories!

As I started to use them more often out in public, I decided I needed a wetbag to carry with me. I mentioned this in a previous post, though never posted pictures. I made another to try to better my technique with zippers, and still failed miserably. I think the 2nd actually turned out worse than the first. But, they are still functional.  They just don't look as pretty as they could.

The bag on the right was my first, and the polka dots were my second. I didn't get a close up of my zipper issues, but I have since found a tutorial that puts the zipper in differently, so I'm hopeful for my next one!
Once using my cloth diapers more regularly, I also figured out that my diaper pail (a small trash can) was not working, as it was 1) too small, and 2) taking up too much space in my itty-bitty bathroom. I had a large piece of the PUL fabric left over from making my smaller wetbags, so I decided to try my hand at a large hanging one.

I used more of the same polka dot fabric (just a basic cotton) and the bag is lined with PUL for waterproofing. The handle snaps closed so I can hang it over a towel rod, or I can just drape the loop over the door handle, pictured below.

It takes up so much less room and is so much more useful than my old pail! The bag holds about 2-3 days worth of diapers, which is about as long as I would want to go between washing anyway. And it's so easy to just throw the bag in with the diapers to keep it clean!  The only problem is, I only have one...so I just bought more PUL to make another for when this one is in the wash :) I also want to make a large zippered one to use when the family goes swimming. My small ones are perfect to stick wet swimsuits in, but are not big enough to hold the wet towels as well, so I want a bigger one :)

The other awesome thing I've learned in the process of cloth diapering is how amazing wool is. When I started using cloth with Little Man, he did get fewer rashes, and the ones he did get were easier to solve. But by far, he gets the least irritation when he wears an all-cotton diaper with a wool cover, because that combination is so breathable. Wool, especially when lanolized, is very water resistant, and can absorb quite a bit of moisture before it soaks through. Plus they're cute! Here's my most recent pair of crocheted shorties on my shy little model:

I love how cute they are, and so fun to make. I only wish I could crochet faster so he had more to wear!